Coin

Archchancellor Coin is a main character in the novel Sourcery. He is the eighth son of the disgraced wizard Ipslore the Red, who was himself an eighth son, of an eighth son. Coin is therefore a Sourcerer, a Wizard-squared. He is currently the only known Sourcerer in existence. When his father Ipslore is about to die, he temporarily evades his fate by hiding his immortal remains in the octiron staff he passes on to his immensely powerful son, giving new meaning to the phrase "living vicariously through one's children". While still a child, his father through his presence in the staff coerces him to travel to Ankh-Morpork to assert himself upon the Wizards there as Archchancellor of the Unseen University. After an effective demonstration of his power the other Wizards reluctantly agreed to make him Archchancellor. The Wizards are able to feed of the Raw Magic Coin and the staff generate and thus become more powerful than they have been in centuries. They uses this new found power, under Coin's leadership to seize control of Ankh-Morpork and transform the Patrician into a small lizard. Not content with ruling Ankh-Morpork Coin sets his sights on the rest of the Discworld. He is initially opposed only by Abrim the Grand Vizier of Al Khali who is himself being controlled by the Archchancellor's Hat. As historically tends to happen when there are huge amounts of magical power around, a wizards' war soon erupts, nearly precipitating the Apocralypse. Rincewind stops the Apocralypse when he confronts Archchancellor Coin armed only with a halfbrick-inna-sock. Rather than kill such a ridiculously harmless figure, Coin realises that he is being controlled by his father through the staff he has inherited and throws it away, By rejecting the staff, the spell which kept his father contained within it is broken. Death promptly appeared to claim his father and Coin is freed of his control. Seeing the damage he had done, Coin used his powers to return the world to how it had been before his interference. Unfortunately, the problems presented by almost limitless power in a world as magically sensitive as the Disc don't simply vanish so Coin creates his own little paradisiacal pocket universe to contain them with him, leaving the Disc behind forever. The high casualty rate among Unseen University wizards during this war may be the reason for the installation of Ridcully the Brown as Archchancellor and the subsequent changing nature of the University, after Coin's reign is ended.